Childish
by Annie Oakley
Summary: Kurt lands in a small town on a mission and meets a rather unique little girl who pulls at his heartstrings and becomes a friend. But the breaking of a tradition will break her heart and their friendship. Finished.
1. Default Chapter

Childish  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 1  
  
Kurt made his way through the small town, jumping from trees to power line poles and anything else that he could land on safely. He would have simply teleported across the whole thing, only he didn't quite know if where he was going still looked like it did and so took precaution instead, taking the slower, and safer, route. Only problem was that he had been doing it for four hours now, and he had fallen off a few poles, being slick with rain and now-turning ice. His head hurt, seeing as that was what he had hit before he had grabbed onto anything, and despite the careful bundling he had done, he was getting cold.   
  
" This is no way for a Nightcrawler to be." He muttered to himself as he stopped on an iceless power line pole and searched the area for a tree that might not shelter him from the cold, but at least from the rain that was now coming down.   
  
His eyes caught one a few blocks away, in the backyard of a light blue house with navy blue trim. It was taller than the others, very obviously a stately and sturdy oak with its leaves still on it. He grinned thankfully to whichever gods had heard his small prayer and started sluggishly leaping towards it, also glad for the cover of night as he scared a bird out if its nest, and himself out of his wits.  
  
Kurt would have made himself at home in the top of the tree where the leaves covered everything rather well, but it also neighbored some of the meanest bluejays that he had encountered.   
  
He meant to swing down from the branch that he was on, and swing he did, but the branch that he had held onto turned into a ledge and there was a wall that he smacked face-first into. Pain exploded in his face and he bit his lip to keep from shouting from it and waking up anyone. Dropping into the cleft of two branches and swearing quietly, but colorfully in his native German, he grabbed his nose and blew a hard breath through it, spraying blood all over his legs. He could breathe after that, and nothing thicker than blood came out, so he knew that his nose wasn't broken. A small miracle. Wiping his nose off on his sleeve, he looked closer at the offending wall and found that a few feet to the place where he had crashed into it, there was a small window. He nearly laughed out loud when he realized that a child's treehouse had nearly killed him.   
  
" Well, it is so late that no good, parent minding child would be out so late, so..." He grinned and glided cat-like through the window.   
  
The room was small. If he raised himself fully up in his knees, his head hit the ceiling. That was the only problem though, because there was much space otherwise, and it was nicely furnished for just being a treehouse. There were pink drapes on all of the other windows, with ruffles and darker pink trim; and a matching pink rug on the floor. It was very soft, and he had to admit, it was big enough to sleep on if he curled up enough. Kneeling and wiping his nose on his sleeve again, he looked to the entrance of the treehouse, seeing that it had no door whatsoever and looked right into the room of the owner of the place, seeing as that the curtains in the room across the way matched the one in the treehouse.   
  
Suddenly a small light snapped on and he ducked down, keeping his eyes on the window. A small figure sat up in bed, and he could not see any features as the girl came closer to the window and opened it, so he waited for her move.   
  
***  
  
Amy woke with a start from her half-hearted sleep. She thrust her hand out of the covers and switched on the bedside lamp and sat straight up in bed, her head turning to the east window in her room. She could have sworn that she had heard something outside in the tree, but there was nothing there but the rain of the coming storm. She made a face and crawled out of her bed and walked to the window, looking closer at the tree and the house that her father had made her that summer.   
  
She hated storms. She always knew when they were coming, and she was filled with unknown energy when they came, but the energy left when the storm did, leaving her drained and lifeless for a few days after. Already she could feel the itch in her limbs that knew she was going to be hyper as a gnat tomorrow, but she also knew that for now she could control it.   
  
Just like she knew there was something outside. She may have been a mere seven year old, but she wasn't a stupid one, or slow at that. Slipping the latch open, she pushed her window open and deftly climbed onto the outstretched branch of the oak that let her get to her treehouse late at night. As deftly as a lizard, she stuck to the branch until she got to the safer part and stood up on her hands and knees and continued her journey. " I'm not going to be able to do that when I'm eight." She thought aloud, something she did often.   
  
It wasn't that she didn't have an inner monologue, it was just that verbalizing some thoughts made it easier to understand them, and at this moment, she felt she was going to do a lot of talking.   
  
" Look," She said, picking up the thick braid that had fallen over her shoulder and flinging it behind her as she sped up, finally reaching the entrance to her house. " I know something is here, and you had better know that I am not a mean girl, but I don't really appreciate people being in my treehouse without my permission."   
  
Amy thought that it was a mere raccoon as it had been the last time, or the neighbors cat like it had been the time before the raccoon. She wasn't sure, and so she stood up in the doorway, making sure she was in a few feet so if whatever was in there suddenly startled and flew past her, she wouldn't fall the twenty feet that it was to the ground. Between falling to her death and facing a wild animal, she'd take the wild animal any day.   
  
Nothing replied to her, no sound, no movement, nothing. And yet... there felt like there was something in front of her, something bigger than a cat, definitely bigger than any of the raccoons around town, bigger than any of the dogs that were on the block, though she didn't see how a dog would have gotten up there.   
  
" I won't hurt you, I promise." She inched forwards on her feet and held out her hand tentatively, though she wasn't touch anything yet. " I promise."   
  
***  
  
" I promise."   
  
The girls' voice was soft and tempting, as if she was calling a scared cat out of a tree. Her eyes were bright and shining in the dark, and sadly he could not see what color they were, but her hair was a definite soft golden red, like brass polished to a new gleam. She was short, tall enough to stand in the house, and her skin was pale in the moonlight, though he knew that with all children, they bronzed in the sunlight as they played. Her nightclothes were not those that he had ever seen on any child, a mere green tank top and a matching pair of baggy pants, both featuring the face of some wild green creature with a gaping mouth and wild eyes. Above the face on the tank top were stark black words, declaring " Cram it!"   
  
Kurt stifled a giggle and turned his face to the girl again, raising himself up a little so that he was facing her. " If you promise, then you have to keep it." He said quietly, so as not to shock her too much.  
  
Her eyes widened and he watched her body stiffen, though she did not withdraw her hand, merely curled it into a fist that shook. " You aren't a cat at all." She breathed, her nostrils flaring because she could not get breath past her tightly clamped lips.  
  
Kurt shook his head. " Just because I have a tail like one does not mean that I am one." He did not draw any nearer to her, just shifted himself into a more comfortable position with his legs under him and his tail curled around his feet. He put out a hand a few inches away from hers.   
  
" I am Kurt Wagner, also known as Nightcrawler to the fair circus folk." She did not take his hand, but nor did he lower his. " I was just passing by here, looking for a place out of the rain and cold until morning."  
  
Her eyes studied him, the only part of her body that moved in that second until she relaxed and let her hand fall to her side. " Why are you bleeding then?"  
  
Kurt let his own hand fall, realizing that it had been the sleeve that he had wiped his nose on. " I crashed into your wonderful wall on my way in here." He didn't see why lying to her would help any, so he told her the truth.   
  
" Does your nose hurt anymore?" She asked, rubbing her fist on the side of her pant leg.   
  
" A bit." He waved the statement away. " I have stopped the bleeding, it does not matter anymore."   
  
She shook her head, her long braid falling over her shoulder. " No, you are still bloody. Please," She looked towards her house to make sure of something. " come inside. I'll clean you off and give you a blanket to sleep with."  
  
Kurt nodded and followed her back into the house, mimicking her movements to get to the window, because obviously you could not get back into the house through the window without squatting down on the branch like a constipated monkey. Kurt nearly laughed at the thought and quietly slipped through the window behind her.   
  
***  
  
Amy's mind screamed at her. ' Why are you doing this?' It raged as she moistened a washcloth in the bathroom in her room, warming the water a bit more. ' He is a mutant! Can't you see that? Your mother is going to kill you both if she finds out.'   
  
" He needs help. I promised Da that I would help anyone who needed it." She told the little voice as she wrung the water out and walked silently to her bed, handing it to the blue demon thing that she had found hiding in her treehouse. " Here you go."  
  
Kurt, as that was what he had said his name was, took the washcloth and wiped off his wrist and face before holding it to his nose. " Thank you." Amy sat on the small chair that she had dragged out of the closet and observed him.   
  
He was blue all over, and she thought that it was fur of a kind, since it shone in the darkness the way that cats fur usually did, only his was blue. His hair was black and shining, slicked back to the nape of his neck, a strange, but oddly pleasant contrast to the beastly yellow of his eyes and the white of his teeth. He only had three fingers and toes, and his tail was slightly thin with a strange spade at the end. Definitely not like a cat. His ears and teeth were pointed, but it didn't scare her. In fact, nothing about his scared her, yet.  
  
" I'm Amy." She said into the silence, knowing that he was watching her as avidly as she had been watching him. " Amy MacConnors."  
  
" Irish?" Kurt asked, slightly tilting his head to the side.  
  
" As Irish as you are German." Amy said, her eyes glinting as she smiled at him.   
  
" And a tongue for accents." Kurt took the washcloth away from his nose and started scrubbing the dried blood off his sleeve and legs. " You father must be proud."  
  
Amy winced, and Kurt could see it in her smile. It faltered, but never really waned. He guessed he knew what that meant, but it could mean anything to a small girl.   
  
" He was proud of me." Amy said. " When he was alive enough to still be proud of anything, it was always me."  
  
" A good thing to be proud of, a daughter." Kurt gravely intoned, still rubbing the wet cloth on the front of his leg. " But since I have none, I think that I should be proud of other things."  
  
" Like what?" Amy asked, and he could hear the carefully hidden intonations of the accent that her looks spoke of. He wondered why she would hide it, but answered her question. He looked her straight in the eyes, finding that they were rich blue orbs, large in such a small face, and yet so intently studied on him.   
  
" Friends and family, goals, wishes, dreams, comrades." His voice melted off as a smile came to his face, remembering the women and men of the X-Team back at the mansion that he had taken leave of to make this trip down memory lane.   
  
" Comrades?" The growing lilt of her voice made it a question.   
  
" The people I have fought beside. Some were friends already, most became friends in the end." ' The ones that survived.' His mind told him, but he refused to let a little voice ruin his safekeeping.   
  
" You... fought?" Amy asked, her eyes getting a little wider. " Who?"  
  
" Many people, bad ones and good ones alike." Kurt shook his head, not knowing that Amy was imagining all kinds of horrible scenes in her head, like any active minded seven year old would, especially when presented with a mutant of his caliber.   
  
He turned to nicer things, hoping to get both of their minds off of what they had just brought up. " So," He said, picking up the pirate rag doll that lay haphazardly on her bed.   
  
" Who is this charming fellow?"  
  
Amy spent the next few minutes telling him that her father had read 'Cutthroat Island' when she was little and she loved it so much that he had gone out and made her her own little pirate captain. " He's been with me ever since." She declared.   
  
Kurt handed him to her, and Amy took him reverently, settling him in her lap. " Have you been a mutant long?" She asked suddenly, fixing her hands around her stuffed rag pirate.   
  
" Oh, ever since I can remember." Kurt said flippantly. " How long have you been human?"   
  
" I don't know." Amy shrugged. " I thought that they were one and the same."  
  
Kurt was quite taken aback by her statement. She was young, too young to be speaking with the wiseness that she appeared to be displaying. " Explain this to me, please?"  
  
Amy sighed and moved herself off the chair, sitting on the bed beside him. She turned to him and crossed her legs, settling the pirate in her lap. " I figure that mutants are like humans, only better in some ways. It's like comparing a celebrity to my mother perhaps. Their both beautiful and talented in their owns ways, but the celebrity has fame and fortune, therefore making her better in the eyes of society." She shrugged and looked out her window. " Maybe I should make it easier to see in here." She reached behind her and turned up the lamp a notch, making it clear that she had a small smattering of freckles across her nose and under her eyes.   
  
" I see, kind of. But how a small girl can see, that I do not."   
  
Amy shrugged again. " My da and I used to talk about it all the time. We both like mutants, but my mother doesn't. It's odd, that I liked hearing them argue about things involving mutants, it was almost as if I learned more from them shouting at each other than I did from the tv and Internet and radio and school." Her voice got quiet again and she looked away for a second.   
  
" It's getting late. You can take a few blankets out to the treehouse, but it's raining now and it's going to ice over in the morning." She shut the window with a decided finality and latched it. " You can sleep under the bed, because my mom comes in in the morning and wakes me up in time for school. I know there's room, my da used to hide under there when we played hide and seek."   
  
Kurt nodded and took the offered blanket, falling to his knees and picking up the edge of her comforter to slip under. He heard her getting into bed and turning out the light above him, then the toss and turning of her as she tried to get comfortable.   
  
" Kurt?" She asked quietly, and the edge of the blanket was picked up so that he saw her luminous face upside down.   
  
" Ja?" He replied.   
  
" I hope you weren't a dream. It'll have been the best one that I've had since Da died." She now sounded her age, small and fragile and afraid of something.  
  
" Would you like me to stay in the morning so that you know it wasn't a dream?" He asked, putting his arm under his head for a pillow and then finding a big teddy bear that worked better. She was right, there was more than enough room under here for him. " So that after your mother wakes you up, you can check on me and know that I'm real?"  
  
Amy nodded. " Yeah, that would be good." She popped her head back up and he heard her lay back down, snuggling into the covers with her pirate man. " And Kurt?"   
  
" Ja?" He couldn't help but let a little annoyance into his voice, but not much.   
  
" Good night." Her dulcet tones reached his ears and his body relaxed in thanks that it was not another question, but also with the quiet glee that she was so kind to him.  
  
" Good night, minute fraulein." Kurt said, then rolled over and closed his eyes, tucking the blanket around him with his tail. 


	2. 2

Childish  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 2  
  
Amy woke up in the morning before her mother came in. She rushed to the door and opened it, scurrying downstairs and telling her mother that she was awake and getting ready for school. Her mother nodded sagely and returned to her breakfast and morning paper. Amy zipped back upstairs and shut her door, throwing herself onto her stomach and pushing up the comforter.   
  
" Kurt!" She whispered, but to her sadness there was no furry blue visitor. She shook her head, backing away on her hands and knees. " I don't understand, it was so real."  
  
" I am real enough." Kurt said, walking out of the bathroom with wet hair and a smile on his face. " And I smell like strawberries now."   
  
" Kurt!" Amy threw herself at the mutant and he caught her, swinging her up into the air and back down again. " Thank you! I knew you weren't just a really really good dream!" She bounced up and down in excitement, caught up in the hyper energy that last nights storm had delivered.   
  
" Slow down," Kurt lowered his voice and held out his hands to quiet her, but all she did was take his hands and swing them side to side as she hummed a song to herself.   
  
" Amy, I have to go now. It's morning."   
  
Amy's face fell. " I know." She said, dropping his hands and walking to her bed, sitting down on it and picking up the pirate half heartedly. " Here, I'll open the latch for you."   
  
Kurt stopped her by placing a hand on her elbow. " It's daylight though, people are out and about. I don't want to be seen by anyone." He had a twinkle in his eye that she picked up on and she smiled suddenly.   
  
" Of course." She nodded. " There's a stash of cookies in the treehouse. My mom drives me to school and then goes to work, and I walk home. She gets home about two hours after I do, but it will be best if you stay up here all day."  
  
Amy walked to the closet and opened it, revealing a tv with a game station and a DVD player. " Games and movies are in the other closet, and if you are careful, you can sneak into my mother's office and go on the internet." She smiled. " Though I don't know how you'd play the games with those hands of yours." Amy mimicked the way his hands went, pretending to pick her nose with her "three" fingers.   
  
" You would be surprised." Kurt said, opening the closet and nearly drooling in happiness as he saw three of his favorite movies and most of his favorite games. " But then again, so am I."  
  
" I have to get ready for school now." Amy said, pointing to under the bed.   
  
When he didn't move, she stomped her foot softly. " That means I have to take off my clothes silly! I can't go to school in my pajamas!"   
  
" Oh, yes." He said them slowly as he slunk under the bed and Amy pulled the comforter down tight. ' I don't see why not, I do sometimes.' He thought as he listened to her put on some music and get ready for school.   
  
He laughed at some of her singing, though at some parts she really was in tune and rather good. He knew she was hopping around to it, he could feel the thumps on the floor.   
  
" Okay, I'm ready." She picked up the blanket and let him slide out before starting to make the bed. She now had on a pair of jeans that fit in her in the way that he thought only older girls should wear, slightly faded in the knees and around the pockets. Her black t-shirt had a few sparkles here and there, and she had on black tennis shoes. She pulled out a necklace from under her shirt and laid it reverently on her t-shirt.   
  
It was a gold locket, with an A inscripted on the front, and she treated it like it was worth the world to her. She sat at the vanity by the door and started taking her braid out, brushing each section and letting it lay down her back. She must have had it for a long time to know how to brush it so that it lay like molten gold down her back, glowing faintly red in the light.   
  
" My da gave it to me, the necklace." She said before turning around to face him.   
  
" Inside is a picture of me and him together, and then a fortune from the first fortune cookie I ever had."   
  
" Amy! Time!" Amy's mother shouted from downstairs, and she grabbed her backpack and coat, both uniform black.   
  
" I'll be back at four, I promise." She whispered before shutting the door behind her.  
  
Kurt slumped back onto her bed and put his head in his hands. He did want to go, but he didn't want to leave before saying goodbye to her. She had been so kind to him, he felt that it would burn in him forever if he didn't give her some kind of warning that he was leaving. Besides, kindness should be repaid...  
  
" And I have a lot to pay back." He said heavily as he looked to the games and movies closet. " Lots and lots."   
  
***  
  
Amy rode to school in her mothers old Sedan, looking out the window at the place she had grown up ever since she could have remembered. She held the locket in her hand with a death grip, and she knew that her face was drawn and pale, yet her mother hadn't mentioned anything about her being sick. It was strange, the way her mother was looking sideways at her, as if she knew that her daughter had been hiding something from her, but she still said nothing about it.   
  
" Amy," She started, turning off the radio, leaving them in a unnerving silence.   
  
" Are you okay?"  
  
" I'm fine Mom." She reassured her mother, smiling at the same blue orbs that looked out at her. That was the one thing that they shared, was their eyes. She had gotten her hair and skin from her father, and just about everything else too. Wit, common sense, morals and ethics and whatnot. " It's just the storm last night, you know."  
  
Ms. MacConnors slammed on the breaks in front of her school and turned to her daughter, her mouth frowning and her eyes narrowed. " What did I tell you about the storms? They don't do anything to you, it's all just in your head and it's your fathers fault for going and stuffing such thoughts into you in the first place!"   
  
Amy did not cower away from her, merely nodded and opened the door of the car and stepped out. " I'll have a good day at school." She said before shutting the door and walking up the steps to Widdison Elementary.   
  
' Mom doesn't know what she's talking about anymore.' She thought to herself.   
  
' Ever since Da went and died, she hasn't been the same. For all their fighting and yelling, they really did love each other. It's like Nanny Gregs said, when Da died, a small piece of Mom died too.' Amy shook her head to clear it of the thoughts as she entered her classroom and sat down. ' Though I can't help wondering how big that piece was.'  
  
" Attention class, today we are going to study the Emperors of Great Rome before her downfall." Mrs. Kanuchi, the stately old Japanese woman that was her teacher, tapped on the board and Amy was pulled into a daydream of Roman princes with black hair and a wolfish smile.   
  
***  
  
Kurt carefully put away the game system and movies that he had watched. It was only twelve in the afternoon and he was bored out of his mind. It was a good thing that the Professor came calling at that moment.   
  
Kurt, have you been to the grounds and found what you wanted to? Came the soft and entreating voice of the man he knew so well.  
  
Kurt shook his head, not knowing if Xavier could see him or not. No, I have not. I got caught with a nasty nosebleed and by the time I got help, it was daylight. I am cooped up in a small girls house, waiting for night to fall.   
  
A small girls house? Kurt could hear the chuckle in his voice. How did you manage that?   
  
Kurt let Xavier into his mind to see the whole exchange between Amy and himself last night. He felt Xavier's approval, and then felt a small bit of withdrawal. I am glad that you have found a safe place, but we do require your assistance back here.   
  
A mission? Kurt asked craftily.   
  
No. But there are twenty new students waiting for their teacher to start teaching them the arts of agility.   
  
Arts of agility?   
  
Logan's wording, not my own. But we do need you to teach for a few weeks before Logan gets back from his expedition.   
  
Kurt snorted. Logan's wording indeed. Fuzzy blue elf, that was what he was to Logan, but in time he had stopped minding it so much, and sometimes even missed it when Logan was gone. Fine, I will teach the littles when I get back. It won't take me more than another day. After I have found the place, and perhaps if I am lucky, some information, all I have to do is teleport back to the mansion.   
  
Kurt felt Xavier nod and withdraw completely. The whole interaction had taken only a few minutes, but it always left him feeling like it had taken hours. He was not built for telepathic interactions....  
  
Someone opened the front door and slammed it shut, stomping up the stairs. Before they had reached the top, Kurt was under the bed and well covered. He was tensed, hoping that it was some robber come to pillage Amy's house, but as soon as the comforter was lifted and two blue eyes peeked at him, he knew it was not.   
  
" How long is your school?" Kurt asked, getting out from under the bed and brushing his hair back into place.   
  
" Oh, it goes until three thirty in the afternoon, but I was 'sick'." She said the word sarcastically, and he nodded, laughing quietly. " Besides," Amy said, somber and quiet in manner and face. " I had more questions for you before you left."  
  
' And no doubt each answer I give her is going to bring up three more questions.' Kurt thought, but sat down on her bed, cross legged as she was. " Go ahead, we have all the time in the world."   
  
Amy frowned. " My Da used to say that sometimes, I always believed him, until he died."   
  
" Strange, because I learned that saying from a dear friend I had years ago." Kurt shrugged. " What is it that you want to know?"  
  
" Where are you going? I mean, there isn't much around here that a mutant would be interested in, but not that I would know, not being one...." She trailed off and looked at him to answer her inquiry.   
  
" There is an old circus building around these parts, I came here once to perform with my troupe once when I was younger. I made a friend, and I was wanting to see, if after all these years, if he was still here." Kurt shrugged. " Just a short trip down memory lane, I suppose."   
  
Amy nodded. " Why can you only travel at night then?"   
  
Kurt spread his hands down his body. " Do you really think that any normal human would react as well as you have to me jumping through trees and power lines." He grinned, flashing his fanged teeth.   
  
Amy shook her head. " Well, no. I guess you would blend in at night, huh?" It was more of a question for herself, and so he did not answer it. " What is your mutant power?"  
  
It took him off guard for a moment, but he had known that the question would have been brought up sooner or later.   
  
" And I know that mutants have powers, because if they didn't, they'd just be human. Besides, yours can't be only looking scary, because that's no good at all and..." Amy shut her mouth, knowing that she was talking over him. " I'm sorry, go ahead."   
  
Kurt smiled at her. " I will be in the bathroom." He said, and Amy looked at him with a confused look on her face.   
  
BAMF!   
  
" Holy Cow! That was cool!" Amy came flying at the bathroom through the small cloud of smoke that he had left. " Stinky though. Peeuw."   
  
" And that," He gave a small bow after coming out of the bathroom. " is what Nightcrawler does best."   
  
Amy clapped her hands and gave a delighted cry of glee, but her face soon turned serious again, and she stood still. " So what are you going to do after you go and visit the place?"   
  
" I am going to go back to the Xavier Institute and teach a class for a few weeks, and then I am going to merely laze around until Xavier finds something better for me to do." Kurt said, perching himself on the edge of her bed, his tail out for balance.   
  
" Oh, that sounds nice." Amy said in a dispirited way, sitting back at the vanity. " I hope you have fun." She smiled and turned on her tv, bringing a keyboard and mouse out of the side closet. " I think I know what place you are talking about, let me find it here quick."  
  
Kurt sat by her, watching her connect to the Internet through her tv and zip through windows of pop ups and sites of many kinds. " Here it is!" She cried in triumph, bringing up a new window and letting him see it.   
  
It was not something about the Institute as he thought it was, but about the circus grounds that he had once played around, the ones that he was heading to. " This is amazing." Kurt said in a hushed whisper as he looked through the site.   
  
" The Den has been shut down ever since there was a fire started in one of the tents and a bunch of people died." Amy read over his shoulder. " I knew that, my father told me about it." Scrolling down, she read more. " It says that the troupe that was playing that night perished as well, but you say that you were with them, and you seem to be standing here with me." She poked him in the shoulder for good measure.   
  
" True, there was a fire, but it was not set in the tents. One of the townspeople found out that I was a mutant instead of being made up of trickery and circus glamor, and so set fire to the trailers that we lived in on the road. It spread from there, but by then we were already performing, and payed no attention to anything but our sets. By the time someone noticed the fire, it was too late." Kurt hung his head a little, but Amy put her hand on his shoulder and rested her head on it.   
  
" I would say I'm sorry, but Da taught me to never say sorry for anything I didn't do." She said. " I can say, however, that the Den is still there, it's just closed up. You could get there, no problem, if you can do that bammy thing."   
  
Kurt nodded and stood up, gently shaking Amy off. " I think it is a good idea that I go now." He said. " It may still be daylight, but I remember how everything looks. It should be no problem."   
  
Amy took his hand, making him look down at her. " Will you come back?"   
  
Kurt shook his head. " Not immediately, but I am sure that I could make a few visits to you during the year, if you would like that." Amy considered that, and her finger went to her mouth as she chewed on it, thinking.  
  
" Do you think you could come on my birthday?" She asked. " No one ever does anything for my birthday, since Mom is always busy and I don't really have friends at school."  
  
Kurt smiled down at her. " Of course I could, if I knew when your birthday was." He said teasingly.   
  
" March 4th." She said. " I guess I'm going to have to wait until next year to see you again, huh?"   
  
" Oh, perhaps." Kurt said, releasing her hand gently and kneeling down to hug her.   
  
" Oh! You're soft!" Amy pushed herself back and stroked his chin with a shaking hand. " I didn't think that..." She smiled to herself and pushed him away. " You have to go now, I don't want to keep you any longer. This whole business is very obviously important to you..."   
  
" A new friend is as well." Kurt grinned one last time at her and teleported out of there, hoping that he would land in the old performance tent that he had seen that fateful day so long ago. 


	3. 3

Childish  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 3  
  
Kurt came to visit Amy at night again, teleporting into the crook of the tree where he had rested, nursing his wounds last year. He crept to the edge of the tree house and used his tail to move a branch over to tap on her window. It was not a new branch, just one with new leaves and a few new inches of length. A head popped up and peered out the window and he had this moment long fear that she had moved without telling him and it was some other little kid. But when her sunset colored head popped out of the open window and she beckoned him in avidly, he knew that it was not so.  
" You came!" She whispered, furiously happy as she hugged his waist.  
" You've grown a few inches since I last saw you." He murmured, hoping that his gift would fit her, but he hugged her back all the same. " Why are you surprised that I came?"  
Amy backed off and jumped onto her bed, putting her hands in her lap. " Well, not quite surprised, just happy." She assured him, holding out her hands.  
" Why are you doing that?" He said, looking utmost confused.  
" It's my birthday, remember?" She lowered her hands the littlest of bits. " You didn't forget, did you?"   
Kurt shrugged. " I don't know, maybe that's why I had this desire to bring this package with me." He took it out of his sling and handed it to her.   
Amy squealed, quietly, in happiness and ripped open the silvery paper that he had wrapped it in, shoving the lid off the white cardboard box and picked up the black hat that he had fashioned for her. " Oh my goodness." She said, amazement on her face as she turned on her nightstand lamp and looked at the hat further. " It's just like Nobeards!"  
" As close as I could get to it, really." Kurt picked up the pirate doll, examined his hat, and put him back down after reassuring himself that it was the exact match between the one Nobeard and Amy had on.   
The same floppy style, the same silver brooch holding the same red and green feathers to the side, the same upturned right side where the feathers were, and even a small piece torn out of the brim. Amy turned to Kurt.  
" Thank you, so very much." She said in a quiet voice, trembling with tears that wouldn't fall.   
" Why are you crying?" Kurt asked, putting an arm over her small shoulders.   
" My Da said that someday he'd go and make me a hat like Nobeards!" Amy sniffled. " But then he got too sick to do anything and then he died!" Her cries were getting louder and louder and Mrs. MacConnors had come from her room to see what the matter was.   
Kurt snatched the hat and the box and paper and disappeared into the bathroom, holding his breath until Amy's cries lessened and then eventually stopped and she bade her mother go. Her footsteps were quiet as she padded to the bathroom door and opened it. She held the doorknob, looking up at him.   
" I'm sorry I started crying, I just didn't, I mean..." She shook her head gently and looked down at the floor.   
Kurt put the hat on her head softly and brought her chin up. He kissed her gently on the cheek and wiped away the tears that her mother had missed. " I am sorry to have upset you, but just because your father is gone does not mean that you have to miss out on things."   
Amy nodded and hugged him again, strength in her limbs, which he noticed, weren't so small anymore. She was growing up, and even though she wasn't his child at all, she still had some kind of hold on his heart, and it slightly pained him to think that she was doing all this growing up without him. He was sure that that was how her father was feeling, wherever it was that he had gone after death.   
I promise, I'll take very good care of Amy. I swear it on my life. Kurt told her father, hoping that his message reached the man.   
" I have a present for you too." Amy said as she let go of him.  
She went to her computer, which was a real computer this time and not connected to her tv, booted it up, and proceeded to log onto the e-mail website that Kitty and the rest of the kids were so keen on hogging the computer with. " I got you your own e-mail address so that we can talk to each other all year long and you don't have to keep popping over here to talk to me."   
She drew back and let him look at it, and he declared himself pleased, even though the name caused some dread in him. " Furryblueelf?" He asked, a slight look of distaste on his face.  
" Yep. I couldn't think of anything else, other than 'Tailedterror'." She said, logging in for him.   
" I guess it isn't that bad then." Kurt said as he looked around. " I see you've already gone and fixed things up for me." He noted as he spotted her e-mail already saved in 'Contacts'.   
" The password right now is 'Amy', but after you get back, you can change it if you want to." She said, sounding very knowledgeable about everything, as if he knew nothing about the Internet.   
" All right, LittleBitWarrior." He smirked, knowing that somehow it wasn't her entire idea to have that as her e-mail name.   
" Da used to call me that. Little Bit was ever since I was born, and when I started getting bigger, and meaner, he called me Warrior. I thought it was appropriate to go and combine the two." Kurt nodded his agreement and closed the window out, knowing that he would change the password as soon as he got home in the morning.   
He turned around in the chair and pulled out a blanket and small pillow out of the bag that her present had been in. " I think your birthday calls for a small party and a sleepover to end it all." He then pulled out the small cupcakes that Storm had baked for him that day, the wax candle in the shape of an 8, and a small lighter.   
Sticking the candle in her cupcake, he lighted it and then sang her a happy birthday in German, something that delighted her to no end. They ate their cupcakes, Kurt laughing at something she said and spraying crumbs all over her and the floor, which she just giggled at. Somewhere around midnight, Amy declared that she was tired, and so he snuggled himself down under her bed with his blanket, pillow, and the same stuffed teddy that he had found the first time, and fell into a contented sleep.  
  
* * *  
  
And so it went for the next five years until Amy had finally reached her teen years at the tender age of thirteen. That year, instead of all the pirate stuff that he had been giving her, like the velvet cape, the cutlass and gun set with a matching belt, and even a pair of real leather boots, he got her something different indeed.   
This year, Kurt came in complete daylight because she had e-mailed him and told him that her mother was going on a date that day and would be out all night. This time he didn't bother teleporting to the tree, just popped right into her room. She lay in her bed, and it looked like she hadn't even gotten up for the day, even though it was almost twelve in the afternoon.   
" Amy?" He asked quietly, brushing a hank of black hair out of his eyes. " Amy, I'm here."  
She rolled over, making a small whimpering noise and Kurt saw that she was asleep. She had grown, he noted. Her hair was unbound, something that he had only seen in her when she was awake, and she seemed paler. She turned again, and something felt not right to him.  
He stood over her bed, turning back the covers a little, making sure that she had something decent on, and she did, so he sat down on the little sliver of the bed that was left. He put his hands on her shoulders and shook her gently, making sure that her eyes opened. She felt clammy, and he could see the sweat beading on her forehead.   
" Kurt...." Amy breathed, her eyes half open and dilated, the blue a mere line around the orb of her pupil. " Happy birthday to me."  
" Amy!" Kurt cried, dismayed at how high her temperature was. " What's wrong? Are you sick? Why didn't you tell me?"   
She put her hands out, or tried to. She moved stiffly, her chest barely rising with breath, and it seemed harder for her to speak. " I've been... sick for a time now." She smiled and gave a little cough, one that seemed to echo in the room. " I had a dream about... Da last night... He said I'd be with him."  
Kurt shook his head. " When?"  
Her voice became a gasp. " Soon."  
The word turned into a horrible gasping, racking cough, dry and solid. She was fighting for breath, and she leaned over her pillow for support, her shoulders shaking as she fought to overcome the fit. Her eyes were closed when she rolled back over and Kurt's hands shook as he saw what she had coughed up.   
Blood.   
" I'm having to say good-bye," She said, brushing a limp hand across his chest. " I'm-" She didn't get a chance to say what it was that she wanted to, because she dissolved in another coughing fit, but this one didn't dissipate. Instead, her coughing got worse and worse, and blood started dribbling out of the corner of her mouth.   
Kurt had had enough of it. " Amy, I'm taking you to where I can save you." He told her as she weakly fought him when he picked her up in his arms.  
" I don't want to be saved." She said dryly, tears starting to form in her eyes.  
" Everything's cold, Kurt."  
He hugged her close to his body, then snatched Nobeard off the bed and closed his eyes. " It's going to be alright. I promise."  
" You had better keep that promise." Was the last thing before he had them racing through space to the Institute. 


	4. 4

Childish   
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 4  
  
Amy swam in an ocean of pain. She was half consious, half out of it. She could hear voices, but she tried to open her eyes and couldn't. She tried to call to them, but her mouth wouldn't work. She felt it when the needle plunged into her arm, and whatever it was that they had put in the IV bag burned through her veins. Kurt said that she would be okay, and safe, but she didn't feel like she was.   
  
' Calm down, Amy. We've been through worse than this.' She told herself, fading in and out of herself. ' Remember? The snowstorm last year, when Lillah decided to beat you up and you broke your arm trying to get away from her, the first attack.' She shuddered as she remembered the first attack of her strange illness.   
  
She had been in school at the time, and had asked to go to the bathroom. When she had gotten in there, a strange dizzy spell had hit her and she had fallen to the floor, having lost her breath at the same time. Everything had gone black, and when she had woken up, there was a small pool of blood under her head and across her mouth and school was out. She had cleaned herself up and went to her locker, collecting her things like everything was normal; gone home, taken a shower, and fallen asleep at her computer. She had completely forgotten about it until she had an attack in public. It was mostly dizzy and blackout spells that she had, so that doctor didn't know what was wrong with her. She had never told them about the blood, and didn't think that she would. She knew what she had, and didn't need some silly doctor poking and prodding at her to try and figure out what it was.   
  
She had consumption.   
  
  
  
***  
  
" Jean, is she going to be okay?" Kurt asked the next morning, nervously buttering a bagel that he knew he wouldn't be able to eat.   
  
" I don't know. I gave her a penicillin shot, and that should have worked." Jean said from behind her paper. " Oh no."   
  
She threw down her paper and started running to the entrance to the labs under the Institute. Kurt ran after her. " What happened? What have you done to her?" He shouted, anger boiling in his blood.   
  
" She's not reacting well to the penicillin. I think she might be allergic to it." Jean said as she fought with the hand scanner.  
  
Kurt grabbed her around the waist and teleported them to the room that Amy was in. She wasn't fighting anything, wasn't moving at all, in fact. " Save her!" Kurt said, scrabbling at Amy's hand and holding it tightly.   
  
Someone came through the door, and Kurt turned to see that it was Logan. He had been patching a few students up after a nasty training accident. " Who's that?"   
  
" My friend." Kurt said shortly, turning back to Amy, whispering to her. " Please Amy, I don't want to lose you, I don't want to leave your mother with no one. I don't want to lose another friend."   
  
" This kidlet means a lot to you, don't she?" Logan asked, folding his arms over his broad chest.   
  
" Ja, she does." Kurt managed to get out around the lump in his throat.   
  
" Budge over." Logan moved faster than Kurt could have anticipated. " Jean, answer me something."  
  
" Yes?" Jean looked saddened, as if she saw something in Amy that Kurt or Logan didn't, or maybe she just didn't want to lose a patient.   
  
" My healing abilities worked for Marie a few times, and they are natural, in my blood. So do you think that pumping her full of my blood would help this little bit right here?" He was serious too, and Kurt was surprised that he was offering something so bizzare.   
  
" A blood transfusion?" Jean got ready the needles. " Let's hope this works."   
  
She took the bag of fluid off the IV, hooked a needle into Logan's arm, and then made sure that his needle was connected to the bag. Kurt stared at the blood entering the needle, urging it on into the bag, filling it up and then spilling into the tube that fed into Amy.   
  
" I really hope the kidlet appreciates this, seeing as how much I hate needles." Logan growled, looking away from his arm and at Amy. " Who is she anyway?"   
  
" Amy." Kurt said.   
  
" This is Amy?" Logan asked, his eyes widening. " The way you carried on about her you had us thinking she was some hot chick that you were lusting after." Logan grimaced. " Oh yuck."  
  
Kurt grimaced as well, thinking that he had spoken a little strongly about her, but it wasn't often that he had a freind he could talk to like her, or one that understood him so well without being almost exactly like him.   
  
" Kurt?" Her voice was a bare whisper, but it was there. He jumped and immeditaly looked at her.   
  
" Yes, little one?" He asked, glad to see that her cheeks were gaining color and her eyes were normal now.   
  
" Is this gonna make me a mutant?" She asked, her eyes flicking over to the IV from Logan to her.   
  
" I don't know." Kurt said as Jean took the needle out of Logan's arm, letting the rest of the blood drain into Amy. " Jean?"  
  
" Well, since we've never tried this before, I don't know." Jean smiled at Amy encouragingly.  
  
Amy groaned, letting her head loll about on the pillow as her unoccupied hand grasped at Nobeard. " My mom's gonna kill me, I swear."  
  
Kurt laughed a little. " Don't worry about that, Amy. Xavier will fix everything for you, I promise."  
  
Amy sighed, closing her eyes. " Since you seem so keen on making outrageous promises, I guess it's good that you always keep them." Her voice faded away as she fell into sleep again, and Kurt breathed a sigh of relief. She was going to be okay. 


	5. 5

Childish  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 5  
  
Thanks to Logan's blood, Amy was up and walking around in no time. Xavier had done something to her mother's mind that he wouldn't tell them what it was, and so Amy got to spend a few days with Kurt and the X-Team. So far she hadn't exhibited any mutant abilities, and she was glad for that. She used to think that she wouldn't mind being a mutant, but now that she had seen them up close and personal and listened to some of their stories, she didn't think she really wanted to anymore.   
  
" Kurt! Catch me!" Amy yelled as she slid down the stair banister on a skateboard, the one that Lance had left over when he was visiting Kitty. " Whoa!"  
  
Jean picked her up off the railing so that she was floating in the air, and then she was gently set down in front of Kurt. The Professor quirked a little smile at the girls antics and thought that they should start bringing in some more younger children. Amy certainly was entertaining.  
  
" I wanted Kurt to catch me." Amy pouted.  
  
" And I didn't want to see you get hurt." Jean said, having become a little attatched to the girl; a patient who had quickly become a friend.   
  
" Oh." Amy's pout transformed itself into a glamourous smile. " Thank you, then."   
  
" It's time to go now, Amy." Kurt reminded her gently.   
  
She had spent almost an entire two weeks at the manor, and even though Amy had inisted that she stay, Xavier had thought that it was best that she go. None of the others wanted to really see her go, but knew that she was human and had other duties. Plus, whatever Xavier had done to her mother wasn't permanant, and they didn't want a missing persons case on their hands.   
  
" I don't want to go." Amy said, still smiling as she ran to Jean and Xavier, giving them each huge hugs, rubbing Xavier's bald head and giggling.   
  
Logan and Kitty came from out of the kitchen, and Amy ran to Kitty, hugging her as well, whispering something in her ear before letting go and facing Logan bravely. Logan and the girl hadn't quite gotten along very well, her being too loud and rambunctious, and well, a kid for his liking. He hadn't been as playful as the other adults, and her prompting to try and pull him out of his seriousness hadn't worked. She had been very put off because of it.   
  
She stuck her small hand out, and Logan only raised an eyebrow and bent down slightly to shake her hand. Quick as lightning, she was hugging his shoulders and even was able to bestow a peck on the cheek before running off to Kurt again, jumping into his arms and being teleported away.   
  
They landed in her room and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in his shoulder. " I don't want you to go." She said, her voice muffled.  
  
He gently took her arms off him and set her on the floor, handing her Nobeard and the few presents from the friends she had made, the t-shirt from Kitty, the portable chess game from Xavier, and the bag of puzzles from Jean. " I know you don't want me to, but I have to. You belong here, with your mother, no matter how horrible she may be."   
  
That got a smile out of her, and she nodded. " I know, I know." She sighed. " Thanks for saving my life. That-" She stopped for a moment. " It meant a lot to me, that you took me to them instead of trying to get my mom's attention and letting her take me to the regular doctor. If you had..." She trailed off, not wanting to say it.  
  
" You would have died." Kurt said softly, wincing to think how close his little friend had come to death. " It's scary."   
  
Amy nodded. " I felt bad though."  
  
" Why?"  
  
" Because the whole time that I was consious enough to think, I wasn't thinking of my Da." She looked up at him with tears beginning to sprout in her eyes. " I was thinking of you and how sad you would be if I died and how sad I would be if I never got to see you again. And if I did ever get to see you again it would be because you had died." Her voice grew quiet. " I didn't want things to be like that."  
  
Kurt was rocked with the feelings from her. She was so young, and yet the things that had been happening to her had somehow made her grow up a little more faster, robbed her of some of her childhood. He felt responsible for it.   
  
" You're welcome." Kurt said warmly. " And I'll make sure that Jean and Logan get the message as well." He said, and then had to rush away, because Amy's mother opened the door.   
  
" Oh, there you are!" She said, surprise on her face at her daughter. " It's time for your doctor appointment."  
  
Amy smiled and nodded and went with her mother. She smiled the whole time, and kept smiling when her doctor announced that there was nothing wrong with her, that there was no evidence of anything anymore. She was going to have to do something nice for Logan the next time she visited. 


	6. 6

Childish  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 6  
  
Amy grew up, as all children do. She never got sick again, with anything else. Not even when a nasty flu epidemic went through the town and almost everyone was out but her. She started taking marital arts classes, taking good care of herself as best as she could. She tried to train like the mutants had, and she thought that she was doing a pretty good job. She got friends, and even had a date here and there. Her next two birthdays passed with much success, every time Kurt came with more than just his own presents. Kitty got her clothes and makeup, Xavier and Jean often got her more intelluctual things like classic thinking games and puzzles of many kinds. On her fifteenth birthday, there was even a small present from Logan, a tiny swtichblade.   
  
She felt that it was on her birthdays when she grew up the most, or at least, when she noticed it the most. Knowing that there were other people out there that cared about her made her feel like everything in the world was okay, and as long as she knew that, there could be no harm done to her. She carried that aura with her everywhere.   
  
The day of her Sweet Sixteen came with a large storm the night before, so she was exuberant with energy and she wanted to do something. She planned on taking Kurt out to dinner, knowing that he had some kind of an image inducer, something that the Professor had thought up for him. He had e-mailed her to tell her that he needed to finishe a mission first, so he would be a little late, and she occupied herself by beating one of his favorite games. After she did that, she waited by reading a book. She was starting to get worried, because it was already seven in the evening and he still wasn't there.   
  
So she went downstairs and did everything that she could. She cleaned, she washed clothes, and even started making dinner for her mother, but he never showed up. After ten, she went upstairs and sat at her window with it open, wishing him with all her heart to be there. She checked her e-mail, but there was nothing from him. She didn't know what was going on.  
  
She cringed when she thought about it. Every hour that passed by killed something in her, and her heart became hardened. Her thoughts turned from wishing him there to regret and betrayal.   
  
' He's found something better to do. He's forgotten all about me and he doesn't care anymore. I'm not important to him anymore.' Every little thought of hers drove her to tears, and finally she went crazy.   
  
She went to her closet and took out all the things that he had given her, from the pirate outfit to Nobeard's twin to the things that she had gotten from the rest of the mutants. With careful aim, she threw all of them into the tree house, through the small door. Then she went downstairs and got the extra gas tank out of the garage and climbed up the ladder, pouring the gas all over the gifts and the house and the tree. From the very base of the tree, she struck a match and set the base on fire, watching it run up the trunk to the tree house. It took a while for it to catch, and when it did, she ran.   
  
She didn't watch where she was running, she didn't care anymore, she just ran, crying lonely tears.   
  
***  
  
Kurt walked up the path, making sure his human image inducer was on before knocking on the door. He had wanted to surprise her this year by taking her out to dinner. He wanted to make this year extra special because he had missed last year. The mission that he had gone on had taken a toll on him, and beat him up pretty bad. His left arm had been broken, as well as his collorbone. He had to rest for two months before Xavier had even started thinking about letting him out again. He had spent all year planning her birthday this year, and he wasn't going to let anything ruin it.   
  
He knocked and waited. Her mother opened the door.  
  
" Is Amy here?" He asked hopefully, but she only shook her head and started to close the door. " Could you tell me where she is?" He asked.  
  
" Amy's been at the hospital for the past six months." She said, her voice quiet and harsh as if she didn't speak much anymore. " She's been institutionalized."  
  
Kurt didn't know how to react to this information. It must have shown on his face.   
  
" Are you Kurt?" Her mother asked, and he nodded dumbly. " Come in. She told me to tell you some things."  
  
Kurt walked in as if he had never seen the place, and indeed he had never seen it in this state. It was like she was just moving in, there were boxes all over the place and things on the floor. None of it was Amy's. He sat at the kitchen table, the only thing that was familiar to him.   
  
" Last year on her birthday, Amy went crazy." Her mother started. " She set fire to the treehouse and ran away. She tried to pass it off on the lightning storm that had been happening, and the police believed her, but I knew better." She shook her head and a spark of motherly condenscence showed in her eyes. " About four months later, we had a really bad storm. It knocked out the whole town's power, everything was dark. I went to go check on Amy in her room since she gets kinda wierd during the storms."  
  
" She was laying on her bed, tucked under the covers like she was asleep, but when I came closer and shone the flashlight on her, I saw the blood. It was everywhere. I freaked out and called 911, and they came just in time. She had slit her wrists, and then crawled into bed. The doctors said the only thing that had saved her was that her blood started clotting and it stopped the bleeding, but if it had been a few hours more, the clots would have disentegrated and she would have died."   
  
Kurt was reeling. This was his Amy she was talking about. His darling little Amy. The one with the shining red-gold hair and blue eyes and the smile that lit up the room. He had saved her life once, but when his hung in the balance, hers had failed again.   
  
" The hospital has a rule that suicide attempts, if they survive, they have to go through therapy before being released back to their families. Amy was okay with this for a while, until she started getting angry at her therapist. Things started flying around without her touching them. She kept saying that she needed to come back home and get on with life, but that they were keeping her there and she was dying because of it. It was finally when she threw the therapist into the wall when the state decided to send her to an institution."  
  
Kurt nearly screamed. His hands clenched in on themselves and he gritted his teeth. Amy was a mutant after all, and they had sent her to the looney bin because of it!  
  
" Is there a chance-" He cut himself off before he started screaming at the woman and calmed himself down again. " that I could see her?"  
  
Amy's mother stared at him for a while until he looked away. It was painful to see her mother's eyes, because they were Amy's eyes. Her mouth was in a thin line when she finally nodded. " I have to go see her today anyway. She'll be happy to see you." She said, grabbing her car keys off the table and walking to the door, Kurt trailing in her wake.   
  
***  
  
Amy looked up dully from the off-white table that she was sitting at. Her mother was supposed to come to visit her today. Her mother. The bitch that had put her in this place. That bitch.   
  
" Amy?" Someone called her name with undertones of fear in it, and even though it was male, it wasn't one of the staffers. She knew that voice, vaguely.  
  
She looked up with stony eyes and was shocked rigid in her seat at the person next to her mother in the doorway of the small room they had for visitng hours.   
  
Kurt. 


	7. 7

Childish  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Kurt Wagner, or any of the X-Men Marvel comic/movie/cartoon characters that may be mentioned in the duration of this piece of writing. However, Amy and her family and friends are owned by me, as I thought them into some sort of abstract reality, so no stealing them.   
  
Chapter 7  
  
Kurt nearly fell to his knees when he saw Amy. She was sitting at the small table, her elbows up on the table and her legs curled under her in the chair. He noticed her face first, lifeless and dull as he had never seen before. And the reason why he had seen her face first was because there was no more hair to distract the eye. She had cut it all off.   
  
" Amy. Oh my god, Amy. Amy!" Kurt rushed forwards, knocking the other chair over in his haste to get to her and he went to his knees this time, hugging Amy around the shoulders as he sobbed.   
  
Amy sat still as a stone. She didn't want this. He had left her. He didn't care about her anymore. His tears were fake.   
  
" Amy, I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I was hurt too, things on me were broken. I'm so sorry Amy, please." He pressed his face so hard into her shoulder that she could feel his hot breath on her neck. " Amy, why? Why would you do something like this?"  
  
That got a reaction out of her and she pushed him away. Not with her mind, which she could have done easily, but with her hands, knocking him back onto his butt. She stood and snarled at him.   
  
" You left me alone, Kurt," She spat, her hands tightening into fists as she stared down at his human image. It made him easier to hate, to know that he was hiding behind something that he wasn't. " I waited and waited for you that night and you didn't come. You didn't e-mail me or anything, and when I couldn't take it anymore, well, Mummy Dearest here will have spilled the beans on what I did."   
  
She caressed the inside of one wrist and Kurt turned his head to the side, gagging. He didn't want to throw up, but her pain was making him sick. Hers and his own. He had made her like this. Oh gods.   
  
Kurt, don't worry. I've got Jean, Logan and Storm on thier way there. Xavier's calming voice came into his mind and he nodded.   
  
" Amy, please forgive me. I was sick that night, My arm was broken, for heavens's sake, and my collorbone." He got to his feet as well. " I would have e-mailed you, but I forget, you know that. I think I was waitng for you to do it first."   
  
" That's disgusting, blaming me for it." Amy spat. " You could have had Kitty or one of the others send me word about it instead of letting me worry all those long times."   
  
She put out her hand and steadied herself on the chair, falling to her knees and closing her eyes. She let out a huge breath and it shook. She put her hand on her forehead and the movement pulled the sleeve of her uniform up, showing the long scar from wrist to elbow on her arm. It must have been the same on the other arm too.   
  
" Amy, how many drugs do they have you on?" Her mother asked, saying something finally.  
  
" A few that are only availible to the institute. They've got me on this new one, though, that is supposed to inhibit my mutant abilities so that I don't go crazy and rampage again." She laughed dryly. " It's making me sick to my stomach, but doesn't do shit about my powers."   
  
There was a few moments of silence and then Kurt caught her eye again and she stood. " I hate you Kurt. You broke a promise to me, and I hate you for it." Her eyes pinpointed so that her pupils were swimming in a sea of blue. " Do you know what was in the treehouse when it was on fire? Everything that you had ever given me. Everything that the people at the Institute."   
  
She barked out a laugh. " Except for Logan's knife. That was what I used to kill myself. He'll be glad to know that it got put to such a good use."   
  
" I wouldn't be saying it was a good use, girlie." Said a gruff voice from the doorway.   
  
They had arrived.   
  
" Mrs. MacConnors, we'll be taking Amy to Xavier now." Jean said with a forceful voice. " She'll be taken care of, don't worry."  
  
" I won't. I've been waiting for you people to take notice of her. Took you long enough." Her voice was filled with disgust. " Peter kept saying that you would show up for her like you had for him, but you never did."   
  
Amy's head snapped around to look at her mother. " Papa was a mutant too?" She asked, her voice small and innocent as if she was eight again. " And you never told me?"  
  
Amy screamed, one long, loud shriek. The overturned chair rose up in the air and headed for her mother, the ends of the legs pointed like knives. Logan moved quickly, knocking it aside. Jean raised her hands and Amy flew into the air, fighting to get down.   
  
" Amy, go to sleep." Jean said, something in her voice iron-hard and unforgiving.   
  
Amy fought the command for a few moments, but she couldn't. She was just a telekenetic, not a telepath like Jean was. She slumped in the unseen bubble that Jean had surrounded her with and Storm went to go help Kurt over to them. Jean lowered Amy and Logan picked her up in his arms, nodding to her mother as he walked out the door with her.   
  
" Take care of her, okay?" Mrs. MacConnors asked.   
  
Kurt turned around. " I promise." 


End file.
